The best feud in Hollywood has just gotten uglier. It all started when Spike Lee complained that Clint Eastwood's 2006 World War II dramas--Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima--did not show any black soldiers. Eastwood responded by saying that the people who raised the flag over Iwo Jima (the subject of Flags) were all white, and added that Lee had complained about Eastwood directing the Charlie Parker biopic Bird back in 1988:
"He was complaining when I did Bird. Why would a white guy be doing that? I was the only guy who made it, that's why. He could have gone ahead and made it. Instead he was making something else."
Eastwood, whose next film is about a certain former South African president, also said:
"I'm not going to make Nelson Mandela a white guy."
Oh, and...he told Lee to "shut his face."
Now comes word that Lee, who had previously said that he would "take the Obama high road and end it right here. Peace and love," has struck back:
"First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either."
Yikes. But so far Clint has the edge! Spike has a tendency to make great films about race in America (Do The Right Thing, Clockers), while simultaneously saying dopey things about race in America.
Anxiously awaiting round 4...
--Isaac Chotiner